1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to programmable digital computers and, more particularly, to novel systems and methods for programming computers to host databases and search engines for rapid storage and retrieval of information relating to non-deterministic or subjective data sets, such as art works, using both discrete and fuzzy logic to complete the searches using the search engines.
2. The Background Art
Art works, used in this description as an example of non-deterministic or subjective data sets, are created, bought, sold, brokered, stored, displayed, and otherwise moved in commerce throughout the world. Each piece of art is unique. Age, condition, artist, style, and a host of other factors serve to distinguish each piece of art. Albeit some prints may be very similar to other pieces of art, each piece has its own history and condition and, therefore, is unique. A serious difficulty for art collectors is locating works of art desired to complete collections, add a theme, match a decor, or to meet a fancy.
Printed catalogues of art work are sometimes produced by galleries and publishers of art works. Moreover, certain encyclopedias and indices exist for cataloging certain known works of general interest. Also, as with most collectable objects, art works may be listed according to condition, value, artist, or even individual piece, in various collector pricing guides.
The problem remains that an art collector or an ordinary purchaser (retail customer, wholesale buyer, etc.) cannot reliably locate a piece of art. Similarly, an individual seller cannot easily make available a work of art for sale. Moreover, art purchases are largely limited to individual transactions between individuals speaking face to face. For certain widely published works, art brokerages were developed to facilitate purchase and sale of art works. Unfortunately, the ability to track and locate works on demand is largely absent without a substantial investment of manual labor. A certain serendipity is often required, and generally dependent upon the written catalogues and individual contacts which are available to the individual person seeking a piece of art work.
In that various databasing techniques exist, a host of commercial products provide database systems for organizing information. However, the construction of a data structure for an individual database is still largely dependent upon a user's individual needs. Currently, a convenient system for databasing art works is not readily available.
Similarly, search systems and indexing systems exist for documents. However, those search engines typically index every word in a document. Such systems typically have particularly severe restrictions on the methods of search, the flexibility of the search, and a requirement for absolute matches between words sought. The current versions of many of the document storage and retrieval software for indexing text are not readily applicable to art works.
Art, by its very nature, is not easily categorized in absolute terms. Moreover, the lines between different categories of art work are not necessarily distinct in every case. Thus, a search system is needed for searching art works in such a way that a customer may locate an art work according to limited information. For example, a customer may only have an artist's name. Alternatively, a customer may only know that a certain style is appropriate and that certain artists may have art works of the desired style. Similarly, a customer may have a specific, previously seen, art work in mind but not know either the author's name or the name of the work. Thus, it is desirable to create a system that can use an expert's knowledge to search for art works. What is needed is a system for doing an indexed search, to the extent that such a search is feasible and useful, capable of using an expert system for searching based upon an art expert's opinion, and capable of operating using "fuzzy" logic which does not demand absolute mathematical precision in searching. It is also desirable to have a system that could learn, by continually being updated from the experience of users of the system. To facilitate such searching, a method for databasing and indexing selected information about art works is also very desirable.